【外交政策 201411】破碎的世界：2014百大思考者 － 创新者

满仓

【中文标题】破碎的世界：2014百大思考者 － 创新者
【原文标题】A World Disrupted: The Leading Global Thinkers of 2014
【登载媒体】外交政策
【原文链接】http://globalthinkers.foreignpolicy.com/




当今世界，新发明、新创新的出现令人目不暇接。有些发明令人赞不绝口，既好玩又容易上手，还有一些彻底改变了整个行业和个人生活。下面的这些科学家、工程师和企业家发明了快速、全面进行预防性疾病检测的血液筛查方式。他们给非洲儿童提供数字教育工具；让人类用廉价的方式探索宇宙。他们不仅仅是在创造新事物，而且定义了人类发展的未来。


米尔斯瓦米•安纳杜拉伊
航空工程师，印度

“让印度廉价升空。”

9月，印度太空署让一架轨道飞行器成功着陆火星，所耗费的成本还及不上一部好莱坞大片的预算。在米尔斯瓦米•安纳杜拉伊的指导下，价值7400万美元的火星轨道任务创造了一系列的纪录：它是有史以来最廉价的星际旅行；亚洲第一个成功探索火星的尝试；唯一一个在首次尝试就成功登陆火星的国家。

安纳杜拉伊在印度太空署的工作，展现出太空探索的一种新模式。降低总质量、设定有限的试验目标、压缩生产周期，就像火星轨道任务一样，可以帮助其它太空探索机构削减庞大的预算，避免其它任务受其牵累。例如，美国国家航天局最近一次的火星轨道任务耗资6.71亿美元。安纳杜拉伊的团队只用了十分之一的成本，证明宇宙探索并不一定要让银行破产。


詹妮•岩佐
分子动画师，盐湖城

“微生物学的一个新维度。”

怎样才能形象化一个小的看不见的东西？生物学家通常都用一些简单的方式表述——病毒就是一个小圆点、隔膜就是一条线。Molecular Flipbook的创始人詹妮•岩佐希望改变这一点，他帮助研究人员用3D的方式表现分子。

岩佐的Flipbook利用开源技术，整合的动画的制作过程，让新用在几个小时里就可以制作并分享一个作品。其开发速度和对一些参数的设定，远远超过传统的2D模型。岩佐的研究团队目前正在犹他大学模拟艾滋病病毒的生命周期动画，尤其是病毒与人体免疫细胞的相互作用。艾滋病病毒的生命周期很多还不为人知，把它更细致地表现出现可以指导科学家攻克新的问题。

从这个角度来看，岩佐的工作可以被视为微生物学研究的新层面。


詹妮弗•露易丝
材料科学家，马萨诸塞剑桥

“墨水改变未来。”

如今，用3D打印机可以轻松做出美国国会大厦或者是一个智能手机的模型。但是，3D墨水是否可以帮助人们做出更复杂的产品呢？

材料科学家詹妮弗•露易丝正在开发一系列功能性的“墨水”，其中的原料包括人类细胞和金属等。这些墨水可以让3D打印技术在诸多领域有重大突破，从再生能源到生物医药工程。露易丝与她的哈佛大学应用科学工程学院的团队一起，打印出模拟轻木材的材料，有可能被应用于风力涡轮和电池，让小型电子设备的生产更有效率。2月份，她的团队打印出包含血管的细胞组织，向人造人类器官的目标迈进了一步。

露易丝的工作成果证明，3D打印不仅会改变人类的生产方式，而且会改变人们生产出的产品。


艾曼纽•卡彭特/詹妮弗•杜德纳
生物学家，德国/加利福尼亚伯克利

“基因编辑工具的先驱。”

2012年，艾曼纽•卡彭特和詹妮弗•杜德纳与他人合著了一篇学术论文，内容是有关一项基因编辑技术，有可能给HIV和舞蹈病等疾病提供新型的治疗方案。这种方法的名称叫做CRISPR/Cas9，科学家可以用它来剪掉一个基因代码，用一个经过编辑的酶来替代。这是目前为止功能最强大、最精确的基因编辑工具，而且它将给长久的不治之症带来革命性的，或者说是有争议的治疗方法。例如，科学家有可能会在试管的胚晶中去除一个唐氏综合症的基因代码，他们还可能修改受镰状细胞血症困扰的成年人血细胞中的DNA。

今天，在大西洋两岸，卡彭特和杜德纳分别在努力开发CRISPR/Cas9的商业价值。杜德纳位于马萨诸塞州的公司埃迪塔斯医药和卡彭特位于瑞士的公司CRISPR治疗，都得到了数百万美元的风险投资，他们招募了大量基因领域的专业人才。以前的合作伙伴变成了竞争对手，但是无论谁拔得头筹，医药行业必将受益。


伯阿兹•巴拉克/亚历山大•格拉泽/罗伯特•戈尔斯顿
微软高级研究员/物理学家，马萨诸塞州剑桥/纽约普林斯顿

“证实我们无法亲眼得见的现象。”

2010年，俄罗斯和美国签署了新削减战略武器条约，双方同意限制各自布署的战略核弹头，到2018年分别减少1550枚。这是向和平迈进的一大步，但是未来的武器核查人员遇到了麻烦，他们无法得到销毁的核弹头具体数量，因为这个信息是保密的。

在以前，这个问题可以通过跟踪转运弹头的系统来解决，包括炸弹、潜艇和弹道导弹。但是，核武器对话现在已经从战略角度转向实战和非布署性武器上，需要关注的是实际的核弹头，而不是运输系统，因此问题变得更复杂了。

于是伯阿兹•巴拉克、亚历山大•格拉泽和罗伯特•戈尔斯顿设计了一个“零知识”识别机制，来比较所检查的核弹头与一个已知的真核弹头，同时不需要打探有关这个设备的高度保密信息。

如何做到这一点呢？主要是向核弹头发射高能中子。如果通过被检测核弹头的中子数量与通过已知核弹头的中子数量相等，那么这就是一个真的核弹头。否则就是假的。

布鲁斯•布莱尔是Global Zero的创始人，这个组织的目标是消除所有的核武器。他说，这三个人在今年发表在《自然》杂志上的工作成果，可以“改变全球解除核武器的进程”。


佛罗朗•布德瓦/丽塔•托特/阿图尔•布劳恩/雅各布•海尔/埃德温•康斯塔博
材料科学家，瑞士

“捕捉蛾子眼睛中的能量。”

今年，瑞士的5位科学家在太阳能科技方面有了重大的突破，他们的研究对象是两个似乎不大可能的物体：铁锈和蛾子眼睛。

如果把生有铁锈的光电极暴露在阳关中，可以把水分解为最基本的元素，也就是清洁、便于存储的氢。这个方法将会对氢燃料的生产产生革命性的影响，同时解决太阳能无法储存的问题。但依然还有一个问题，铁锈必须要像纸一样薄，而这会把阳光反射出去。

那么怎样才能在一个近乎光滑的平面上捕捉阳光呢？佛罗朗•布德瓦、丽塔•托特、阿图尔•布劳恩、雅各布•海尔和埃德温•康斯塔博在蛾子身上找到了答案。这种昆虫细小的眼睛在夜间可以尽量降低对月光的反射，以防被捕食者发现。瑞士团队在光电极上铺设氧化钨——这实际上就是人造的蛾子眼睛——可以在只有一个纳米厚度的铁锈下聚拢光线。这个创新为氢燃料的生产找到了新方法，新一代太阳能科技即将诞生。


帕尔默•拉奇
欧酷拉VR创始人，洛杉矶

“新一代虚拟世界的先驱者。”

一代人以前，虚拟现实似乎在商业市场上有机会大展宏图。但是直到到了90年代中期，各个公司在投资了数百万美元之后没有获得足够的利润。大型的开发机构没有设计出一款能让使用者真实感受3D世界的廉价头戴设备。之后，一个自学成才的长岛少年出现在人们的视野，他的业余爱好就是摆弄手中的虚拟现实头戴设备。2010年，帕尔默•拉奇制作出第一款虚拟现实头戴设备，具有90度的视野，几乎是以前类似设备的两倍。从那以后，他的团队设计出的头戴设备价格在200美元到400美元之间，而目前主要应用于军事和工业环境的设备售价是1000到5000美元之间。

在2012年的创新者大会上，拉奇的公司筹到了240万美元的资金。今年3月，脸书斥资20亿美元收购了他的公司。尽管欧酷拉还无法成为一个消费类产品，但它有机会让用户感受到无尽的美景；模拟心脏手术的场景和声音；走路观赏巴黎，或者体验战场。


蒂埃利•内杜弗/克里斯蒂娜•沃特森
Siregex首席执行官/非洲出版社首席执行官，南非象牙海岸

“让科技进入非洲教室。”

教育与科技越来越密不可分，蒂埃利•内杜弗和克里斯蒂娜•沃特森把电子学习工具带进了非洲的教室和图书馆。内杜弗设计出非洲第一款教育平板电脑，沃特森让电子学习资料随手可得。

今年，内杜弗的团队设计出Qelasy平板电脑，他称之为“数码书包”，在象牙海岸和摩洛哥开始试运行。Qelasy可以容纳一名学生所有的课程内容，并且可以让孩子有一种友好、互动的体验。沃特森是非洲出版社的负责人，这家位于开普敦的公司致力于让学校更多地接触电子学习资料。4月，她的公司与贫困非洲和纳尔逊曼德拉纪念中心这两个非政府组织合作，在南非农村启动了第一个数字中心——用废弃材料建造的图书馆，里面有书籍和平板电脑。平板电脑和数字中心可以重新构建非洲的教育制度，同时传承了殖民地时期的习俗。内杜弗在接受BBC采访时说：“今天，我们依然像100年前一样上学。同样的书包，同样的黑板，同样的粉笔。”


伊丽莎白•福尔摩斯
Theranos创始人及CEO，加利福尼亚州帕罗奥图

“当代医学所急需的吸血鬼。”

伊丽莎白•福尔摩斯需要鲜血，但是要的并不多。这位30岁的Theranos首席执行官在过去的11年里致力于开发一种廉价、简单的血液检测方式，并且可以筛查从胆固醇到病毒性感染等各种病症。Theranos的检测方式只需要常规检测血量的千分之一，从指间取一滴血之后立即可以进行检测。大约24小时之后就可以得到结果。

福尔摩斯想尽一切办法改变预防性药物的治疗方式，她的目标是提供一种快速而且全面描述病人健康状况的工具。在2013年秋天，Theranos与Walgreens达成协议，在这家连锁药店的门店采血，之后计划把这项服务扩展到8200个连锁店中。这是迈向最终目标的第一步，她要让每个美国人只花很少一点钱就可以在5英里范围内得到个人全面的健康信息。

她在接受《财富》杂志采访时说，血液检测是一个“早期预警系统”，可以发现各类疾病，这是一项“基本人权”。


史蒂芬•莫林科夫
高通首席执行官，圣地亚哥

“让智能手机更聪明。”

传统的智能手机芯片是强悍的运算设备，但是它基本无法识别模式，不能向人类的大脑一样学习。由史蒂芬•莫林科夫领导的高通公司，或许是第一个大规模使用像大脑一样的芯片的公司，最早在明年。

通过模拟大脑的同步处理模式，高通所谓的“神经元形态学”芯片正在研发过程中，它可以让设备有自适应学习的能力，比如智能手机和导航系统。一个手机会知道，你睡觉的时候要静音，识别你照片中的熟人，而不需要专门的软件来实现这些功能。未来的设备不仅会更加智能，而且会更加聪明。


阿尔•柯哈维
Water-Gen创始人、总裁，以色列

“空气制水。”

以色列超过一半的国土面积被内盖夫沙漠所覆盖，水不仅仅是一种资源，而且是国家安全的首要因素。这就是阿尔•柯哈维为什么要发明一个能把沙漠中的空气转化成饮用水的设备。

柯哈维说，他的团队并不是第一个发明这种技术的人，但是他们的设备效率更高。机器给进来的空气降温，萃取液态水，之后通过一个过虑系统，流出饮用水。这套来自其它机器分流能量的冷却系统，部分运行能量来自自身的空气循环。

Water-Gen已经把这套设备出售给世界上7个国家的军队，包括美军。他们的设备每天可以生产120加仑的水，也可以在民用领域发挥作用。世界上有7.8亿人口缺少清洁的饮用水，340万人死于与缺水相关的疾病。Water-Gen完全可以让这些数字下降。


迈克•简克，菲尔•齐默曼
Silent Circle首席执行官/总裁，瑞士

“把隐私掌握在我们的手中。”

迈克•简克和菲尔•齐默曼致力于让个人电子通讯成为真正的个人隐私。他们与首席技术官乔恩•凯勒斯一起在2011年创立了Silent Circle，这家公司的挤出可以加密移动电话和PC机之间的语音和数据传输，包括电话、短信和附件。2012年10月，公司发布了一系列移动电话加密软件，让用户发送的短信息在阅读后立即消失。几个月的时间里，Silent Circle发布了另一个软件，可以为智能设备之间的信息传输加密。简克和齐默曼的新计划在今年夏天实施，扩大了两位创始人所认为基本权力的保密范围。

Silent Circle的技术在今年被乌克兰抗议者用来逃避政府的监控系统。这家公司还为世界上第一款隐私手机Blackphone提供保护功能，这是与西班牙创新公司Geeksphone联合开发的设备。10月，这家公司宣布即将发布他们的第一款隐私保护平板电脑。



原文：

In today’s world, innovations emerge at a rate that is nothing short of fast and furious. And while some inventions may be cool, sleek, and handy, others have the capacity to transform entire fields and individual lives. The scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs in this category are developing rapid, comprehensive blood tests that could change the face of preventive health. They are providing digital educational tools to children in Africa. They are showing how humankind can explore the universe on a budget. They aren’t just making new things; they are defining the contours of humanity’s future.

Mylswamy Annadurai
Aerospace engineer
|India
For putting India into orbit on the cheap.

In September, India’s space agency brought an orbiter to Mars for less than the cost of a high-end Hollywood blockbuster. Under the direction of Mylswamy Annadurai, the $74 million Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) set a string of records: It was the cheapest interplanetary voyage ever, the first successful Asian mission to Mars, and the only national Mars project to reach the red planet on its first try.

Annadurai’s work at the Indian Space Research Organisation offers a new model for space exploration. Lightening payloads, limiting experimental goals, and condensing production schedules, as MOM did, could help other space agencies slim the fat budgets that plague so many missions. NASA’s most recent Mars orbiter, for example, cost around $671 million. For about a tenth of that, Annadurai’s team showed that cosmic achievements don’t have to break the bank.

Janet Iwasa
Molecular animator
|Salt Lake City
For adding a new dimension to microbiology.

How can you visualize something too small to see? Biologists often resort to simple renderings—a virus might become a circle, a membrane a line. Janet Iwasa, lead inventor of the Molecular Flipbook, hopes to change that by helping researchers render molecular processes in 3-D.

Iwasa’s Flipbook, which relies on open-source technology, streamlines the animation process so that new users can create and share a project within hours, accelerating the research process and encouraging scrutiny of hypotheses more detailed than 2-D models could ever allow. With a research team at the University of Utah, Iwasa is now animating the life cycle of HIV—specifically, how the virus interacts with human immune cells. Much about HIV’s life cycle remains unknown, and detailed representations could guide scientists to new research questions.

In this and other ways, Iwasa’s work might literally add a new dimension to the study of microbiology.

Jennifer Lewis
Materials scientist
|Cambridge, Mass.
For showing how ink could reshape the future.

Nowadays, it’s fairly easy to 3-D print a model of the U.S. Capitol or a smartphone case. But what if 3-D ink did more than help humans build basic things?

Materials scientist Jennifer Lewis is developing a broad range of functional “inks” that contain ingredients ranging from human cells to metal compounds. These inks could bring 3-D printing to the cutting edge of various fields, from renewable energy to biomedical engineering. With her team at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Lewis has printed materials that mimic the lightweight strength of balsa wood for potential use in wind turbines and batteries that could streamline the assembly of small electronics. In February, her team reported that it had printed cellular tissue constructs with embedded blood vessels—a step toward the manufacture of artificial organs.

Lewis’s work shows that 3-D printing won’t just change how people make things. It will also change what, exactly, people can make.

Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna
Biologists
|Germany; Berkeley, Calif.
For pioneering a genetic scalpel.

In 2012, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were among the co-authors of a seminal paper on a gene-editing technique that could produce new treatments for diseases ranging from HIV to Huntington’s. Known as CRISPR/Cas9, the approach allows scientists to snip genetic code letter by letter with a programmable enzyme. It’s the most versatile and precise gene-editing method discovered yet, and it promises revolutionary, if controversial, treatments for medical problems long thought intractable. Scientists could potentially disrupt, or knock out, genetic conditions like Down syndrome from embryos in vitro, for example, or they could edit the DNA of blood cells of adults affected by sickle cell anemia.

Today, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, Charpentier and Doudna are separately racing to develop CRISPR/Cas9 into commercial therapies. Backed by millions of dollars in venture capital, Doudna’s Massachusetts-based firm, Editas Medicine, and Charpentier’s CRISPR Therapeutics, in Switzerland, are staffed with some of the biggest names in genetics. Former colleagues are now in competition. No matter who pulls ahead, medicine stands to gain.

Boaz Barak, Alexander Glaser, Robert Goldston
Senior researcher, Microsoft; physicists
|Cambridge, Mass.; Princeton, N.J.
For verifying that which can’t be seen.

In 2010, Russia and the United States inked the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, agreeing to limit their number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads and reducing their inventories to 1,550 each by 2018. A great move toward a peaceful world, but a tricky one for future weapons inspectors, who aren’t allowed access to specific information about the warheads that are to be destroyed—that information is classified.

Historically, this problem has been resolved by trashing the systems that deliver the warheads—bombers, submarines, and ballistic missiles. But once nuclear talks pivot from strategic to tactical and non-deployed weapons and focus on actual warheads rather than delivery systems, verification becomes even trickier.

So Boaz Barak, Alexander Glaser, and Robert Goldston designed a “zero-knowledge” verification system to compare a warhead under inspection with a known true warhead without ever revealing top-secret information about the device’s composition.

How? By beaming high-energy neutrons into the warhead being investigated. If the number of neutrons that passes through it is the same as that for an actual known warhead, it’s real. If not, it’s a sham.

The trio’s work, published in Nature this year, could “change the course of nuclear disarmament worldwide,” Bruce Blair, co-founder of Global Zero, which aims for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, said in a statement.

Florent Boudoire, Rita Toth, Artur Braun, Jakob Heier, Edwin Constable
Materials scientists
|Switzerland
For capturing the power in moth eyes.

This year, five researchers in Switzerland unlocked a major advance in solar technology by turning to two unlikely sources: rust and moth eyes.

When exposed to sunlight, rust-based photoelectrodes can split water into its elemental components, producing clean, storable hydrogen. The method could revolutionize hydrogen-fuel production and help skirt the storage problems typically associated with solar power, but there’s a catch: It only works when rust is layered paper-thin, which allows sunlight to bounce away.

So how do you trap light in a nearly flat surface? Florent Boudoire, Artur Braun, Edwin Constable, Jakob Heier, and Rita Toth found the answer in moths. The insects’ tiny eyes gather moonlight while limiting reflections that would help predators spot them. By attaching tungsten oxide spheres—in effect, artificial moth eyes—to photoelectrodes, the Swiss team was able to trap light under a nano-thin layer of rust. The advance opens up a new method for hydrogen-fuel production and could let the next generation of solar technologies take wing.

Palmer Luckey
Founder, Oculus VR
|Greater Los Angeles
For being the vanguard of the new virtual world.

A generation ago, virtual reality (VR) seemed to hold great promise for commercial use. By the mid-1990s, however, after companies had invested millions of dollars, interest fizzled. Big developers failed to design a cheap headset that immersed the wearer in a convincing 3-D world. Then a home-schooled teenager in Long Beach, California—who passed his time by tinkering with any VR headset he could get his hands on—stepped in. In 2010, Palmer Luckey created his first virtual reality headset, with a 90-degree visual field, nearly twice that of previous devices. The headset that his team has developed in the four years since could sell for between $200 and $400, as compared with the $1,000 to $50,000 models currently used largely for military and industrial applications.

A 2012 Kickstarter campaign raised $2.4 million for Luckey’s company, Oculus VR, and this March, Facebook made a deal to acquire it for $2 billion. Although Oculus isn’t yet a consumer product, ultimately it may have the potential to place viewers in limitless, gripping scenarios, re-creating the sights and sounds of performing heart surgery, walking the streets of Paris, or engaging in combat.

Thierry N’Doufou, Christina Watson
CEO, Siregex; CEO, Via Afrika Publishers
|Ivory Coast; South Africa
For tailoring technology to African classrooms.

As education grows ever more entwined with technology, Thierry N’Doufou and Christina Watson are bringing e-learning tools to African classrooms and libraries: N’Doufou by introducing Africa’s first educational tablet, and Watson by making electronic learning materials more widely available.

This year, N’Doufou’s team is deploying the Qelasy tablet, which he calls a “digital backpack,” to pilot programs in Ivory Coast and Morocco. Qelasy can hold a student’s entire curriculum and provide a kid-friendly, interactive experience. Watson heads Via Afrika Publishers, a Cape Town-based company that is working to expand schools’ access to e-learning materials. In April, her group teamed up with two NGOs, Breadline Africa and the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, to launch their first digital centers—libraries built from upcycled materials and equipped with both books and tablets—in rural South Africa. The tablet and centers could reboot African education systems, which retain colonial vestiges: “We continue to go to school here as we went to school 100 years ago,” N’Doufou told the BBC. “The same heavy backpack, the same blackboard with the same chalk.”

Elizabeth Holmes
Founder and CEO, Theranos
|Palo Alto, Calif.
For being the vampire that modern medicine needs.

Elizabeth Holmes wants blood—but not a lot of it. The 30-year-old CEO of Theranos has spent the past 11 years developing cheap, straightforward blood tests for everything from cholesterol to viral infections. The Theranos process uses as little as one-thousandth of the amount of blood normally required for such testing, drawn from a finger prick and sent off immediately for analysis. Results arrive in as few as 24 hours.

Holmes is dead set on changing the way preventive medicine works by providing a quick but comprehensive picture of a patient’s health. In the fall of 2013, Theranos penned a deal with Walgreens to collect blood at the chain’s pharmacies, with the goal of eventually expanding to all of its roughly 8,200 locations. This was a first step toward Holmes’s goal of making personal health information available within five miles of every American at a fraction of what hospitals charge.

Testing, she told Fortune this year, could create an “early-detection system” for a range of diseases, and she sees it as a “basic human right.”

Steven Mollenkopf
CEO, Qualcomm
|San Diego
For making smartphones clever.

Traditional smartphone chips are computing powerhouses, but they have a hard time recognizing patterns—and learning—like the human mind does. Qualcomm, a semiconductor company headed by Steven Mollenkopf, could be the first to introduce brain-like chips on a broad commercial scale, as early as next year.

By mimicking the brain’s simultaneous processing patterns, Qualcomm’s so-called “neuromorphic” chips, currently under development, could bring adaptive learning to devices such as smartphones and navigation systems. A phone could learn to go silent when you go to bed, or to recognize acquaintances in your photos—without programming specialized for those tasks. The result could be devices that are not only smart, but clever.

Arye Kohavi
Founder and president, Water-Gen
|Israel
For pulling potable water from thin air.

In Israel, where the Negev Desert covers more than half the country’s land area, water is more than just a resource—it’s a national security priority. That’s why Arye Kohavi developed devices to turn desert air into potable water.

Kohavi’s team isn’t the first to develop such technology, but its devices, Kohavi says, are more efficient than earlier models. The machine cools incoming air to extract liquid water, and after the water is culled, it passes through a filtration system, yielding potable liquid. The cooling mechanism—usually an energy drain in other machines—is partially self-sustaining by recycling the already cooled air.

Water-Gen has sold devices to seven militaries around the world, including the U.S. armed forces. But the company’s machines, one of which produces as many as 120 gallons of water daily, could also have applications for civilian purposes: Some 780 million people lack clean drinking water, and 3.4 million die from water-borne illnesses annually. Water-Gen could help bring those numbers down.

Mike Janke, Phil Zimmermann
CEO, Silent Circle; president, Silent Circle
|National Harbor, Md., Switzerland
For putting privacy in the palm of our hand.

Mike Janke and Phil Zimmermann are on a mission to make personal electronic communications truly private. They teamed up—along with the group’s Chief Technology Officer Jon Callas—in 2011 to found their company, Silent Circle, which encrypts voice calls, text messages, and attachments through mobile and desktop data services and calling plans. In October 2012, the company released a group of mobile encryption apps that allow users, among other things, to send text messages that quickly evaporate. Within a few months, Silent Circle launched another app that can transfer encrypted files securely between smart devices. Janke and Zimmermann’s new calling plan, which launched this summer, broadens the confidentiality that the co-founders consider a basic right.

Silent Circle’s technology was used this year by Ukrainian protesters evading their government’s surveillance systems. The company is also providing privacy protections for Blackphone, the world’s first smartphone optimized for privacy, developed in collaboration with the Spanish start-up Geeksphone. In October, the company announced plans to release their first privacy-focused tablet.